Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Veturia. What a wonderful name and it intrigued me. So I searched for her grave, up one row and down the next. Considering that I thought she would be close to my Keyes ancestors, I had a fair amount of searching to do. When I finally found her grave, it was up close to the fence line, next to the road. It was so close to the fence, that I was leaning against the fence to get this picture of her headstone. Her final resting place is far from the Keyes area of the cemetery, and I did not find any Cornett's in the cemetery. So Veturia's headstone stands alone - a way from kith and kin.

Although I have a fondness for the name Veturia, it appears that she preferred to be called Ann, as that is how she is listed in the 1870 Federal Census, Johnson Co., Tennessee. She married Jacob Cornett, October 25, 1866. They had 5 children while they lived on their farm in Johnson Co., Tennessee. Sometime after 1877, they decided to move their family from Tennessee to Oregon, to where a number of the Keyes family had migrated. She had two brothers, Zachary T. and Robert Russel Keyes, and a sister Margaret C. Thomas, who were living in Wheeler Co., Oregon. Her uncles, John, James, and David Lowery Keyes and David's family were prosperous settlers in Benton Co., Oregon.

By 1880, the Federal Census, Benton Co., Oregon, reflects that Veturia Ann Keyes Cornett, at only 31 years of age, had died. She left her husband Jacob with six children, including a newborn.

Now, perhaps only I remember that Veturia lies beneath the headstone, up next to the fence line -- alone -- far from kith and kin.

This Keyes family had a tendency to be traditional in their naming practices --- but there were some definite oddities such as Veturia, Marcus Aurelius, and James Edward Leonardis, which had a different ring ---like a harkening to a Latin affectation.

Sometimes the cemetery can have a lonely feeling. I love the name too. It is an interesting name. Sometimes when we have interesting names though we want to be plain like everyone else. Love your post. I love the quotes on the monuments. I agree.Thanks for coming by and posting my on blog.I answered your comment on my post

I'd like to think that with five children, another genealogist will come along searching for her, calling her great-great, even three greats grandmother, and be thrilled to find her final resting place.

About Me

A child of the 30’s and 40’s, “Betty Crocker” mom of the 50’s and 60’s, college student of the 70’s, businesswoman of the 80’ and 90’s, and finally retired to my home in the hills south of Ashland, Oregon, to garden, contemplate, and write.